Royal wedding = time to make scones (as if I needed an excuse ...)

I've had scone fever the last few weeks and I blame it on the wedding that is taking place tomorrow. 

I know it is cliche but for me, royal wedding = scones.

With just over 8 hours until William and Kate get hitched, it's not to late to make scones to celebrate the latest royal union.

My scone recipe will take you about 10-15 minutes to prepare and then 18-20 minutes to bake.  Baked from scratch goodness in under an hour can't be beat!  This recipe was one of my first posts on the blog when I started writing last year.  But, it is worth revisiting in light of tomorrow's festivities.
I've made three batches of scones in the last two weeks and I've not been disappointed.  I've mixed in blueberries for one batch and raspberries for another.  Regardless of what fruit you mix in, you can't go wrong with this recipe.

It is a very simple recipe that I tweaked to make work for me.  You can certainly add the lemon glaze to drizzle over the scones that I have included in the recipe below.  I haven't used it recently but it is a nice touch.

Perfect Scones
Yields 12-14 scones

Ingredients

Scones:
*2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
*1/2 cup sugar
*2 teaspoons baking powder
*6 tablespoons unsalted butter, but into fourths
*1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
*1 cup heavy cream
*A little under a pint of the fruit of your choice (I like using blueberries or raspberries)
Glaze:
*1/8 cup lemon juice (preferably fresh)
*1 cup powdered sugar
*1-2 tablespoons of water

Details
For the scones:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat

In the bowl of a food processor, blend together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and add in the cream until the mixture forms a dough.

Blend in the fruit to the dough mixture.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 1/2 inch thick, 10-in circle.  If dough seems dry, add a splash of heavy cream.

Using a glass that has a 2-3 inch opening, cut out circular pieces of dough and add to the baking sheet.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until tops start to turn light brown

Once cooled, drizzle with glaze using a spoon

For the glaze:

Mix together the lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Add water until the mixture is thin enough to drizzle. Let the glaze set for at least 15 mins.

Recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

A suitable substitute for Elephant Tracks

My dad had a little bit of a sweet tooth. I think that may be the understatement of the century.

In particular, dad loved ice cream. His all-time favorite happened to be a flavor called Elephant Tracks made by a local ice cream purveyor, Cedar Crest. Elephant Tracks featured chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups. Divine, right? Who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter? The combination no matter how you prepare it is one of my favorites to this day.

I am not sure how many half-gallons of Elephant Tracks dad ate in a month, but it was a lot. He was obsessed.

One day, I went with dad to the local Piggly Wiggly (The Pig) grocery store to pick-up a half-gallon of Elephant Tracks. But it was nowhere to be found.

Yikes. Dad was not pleased. But he didn’t end his pursuit at the The Pig. He was on a mission. A man hunting for his prey, Elephant Tracks.

We went to the Pick ‘n Save in Saukville. No luck. The Sentry grocery store in Port Washington. No dice. Back to Saukville to the Tri-Par gas station and convenience store. Still no Elephant Tracks.

His prey was proving elusive. And this was not cool.

Dad was flustered, his face getting redder by the minute as we drove around in pursuit of the ice cream. Where in the world was his beloved Elephant Tracks? Dad had a bit of a temper and was definitely peeved that the Ice Cream Gods were clearly conspiring against him to keep him from his flavor of choice. We were out of ideas and heading home until suddenly Dad said, “We are going straight to the source! Let’s go to the Cedar Crest distribution center.”

Off we went to Cedarburg. And he was speeding. We pulled into the parking lot and Dad jumped out of the car probably faster than I had ever seen him move. We went in and quickly scanned the cases holding the ice cream. Eureka! We found two half-gallons of Elephant Tracks. Dad’s face lit up! Mission accomplished. We went to pay for the ice cream and dad described the odyssey we had been on for Elephant Tracks and how relieved he was to have found his ice cream.

But the bliss didn’t last long. The cashier told Dad that the Elephant Tracks flavor was being discontinued.

The utter despair that crossed Dad’s face is unforgettable. We walked out of the store, still happy to have the last two half-gallons of Elephant Tracks in existence but knowing he would have to find other ways to get his peanut butter and chocolate combination fix.

I had completely forgotten this story until last month when I found myself with a craving for chocolate and peanut butter. If Dad were still with us, I know he would have thought this dessert was a homerun and a solid replacement for Elephant Tracks.

With Dad in mind, I created a no bake peanut butter and chocolate cookie pie with a graham cracker crust. It was sinful and easy. I could have eaten the filling by the spoonful. Well, I actually may have done just that with the leftover filling. Okay, okay, I did eat about five leftover spoonfulls. And it was glorious!

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Pie
(Makes one 9-inch pie and serves 6-8 people depending on how big you cut the slices)

**Please note that instead of making the crust from scratch, you can also use a store-bought graham cracker crust. Also, I used Newman’s brand chocolate cream cookies but you can use Oreos instead.

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust
*1 and 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
*1/4 cup sugar
*1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, melted

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Pie Filling and Topping
*1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
*1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
*1 cup creamy peanut butter (I like Jif)
*1 cup milk
*1 cup heavy whipping cream
*1 teaspoon vanilla
*10 chocolate cream cookies (either Newman’s Chocolate Cream Cookies or Oreos)
*Optional: melt some chocolate chips and use to drizzle over pie
Details

For Graham Cracker Crust:
Using a food processor, crush enough graham crackers to yield 1 2/3 cups crumbs. Alternately, you can put the graham crackers in a bag and crush them with a rolling pan.

Melt butter and then in a bowl, combine sugar, butter and graham cracker crumbs until well-blended.

Transfer mixture to 9-inch pie pan and press crumb mixture into bottom and sides until evenly distributed. Set aside.

For No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Pie Filling and Topping:
Using VERY soft cream cheese, beat together cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a standing mixer or with a hand mixer.

Once cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar is well beaten and almost fluffy, mix in peanut butter and milk. Beat until smooth. Transfer to a bowl.

In the bowl of the standing mixer, pour in heavy whipping cream and vanilla and beat until peaks form and mixture is fluffy.

Transfer whipped cream mixture to the cream cheese and peanut butter mixture and gently fold in the whipped cream. Once combined, transfer mixture to the pie crust and spread evenly in the crust.

In a food processor, 4 of the chocolate cream cookies until they are crumbs. Alternately, you can put the cookies in a Ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin.

Take the cookie crumbs and sprinkle over the top of the pie. Place the six whole cookies in the pie (see picture above). It makes the pie look pretty but you can easily skip this step.

If you need a little more chocolate, melt a handful of chocolate chips and then using a spoon, drizzle the melted chococolate over the pie.

Cover pie with plastic wrap and place in freezer for at least two hours or as long as you can stand to wait for this delicious pie.

Adapted from AllRecipes and Cooks.com

Stirring the oatmeal

One of the most profound pieces of advice anyone offered my husband and I regarding marriage came a few minutes before we were officially married in November 2006. We stood together, ready to say our vows but first, the minister, Rev. Luis Leon gave his sermon.

His advice was simple: keep stirring the oatmeal.

In other words, remember that marriage isn’t like instant oatmeal where you heat it up and in minutes, you have the finished product and you can dive into the bowl of oatmeal.

Marriage isn’t no muss, no fuss like when you open the instant oatmeal package.

Rev. Leon said marriage is like steel-cut oatmeal. You need to have patience and tend to the steel-cut oats, stirring constantly. Life gets more complicated as the years go by and you need to keep "stirring" your marriage and take time to work on your relationship whether through dinner dates or other small, thoughtful gestures to each other and not put your relationship on the back burner thinking your marriage will stay as good and strong as the day you were married.   Like steel-cut oatmeal, marriage is not an instant gratification endeavor but rather an instance where putting in continued effort makes the outcome even better.

And I couldn’t agree more as it pertains to oatmeal and marriage and now, parenting. Before our son came along, tending to our marriage was fairly easy. We only had to deal with our jobs when it came to competing interests for spending time with each other. Now, it is also balanced with spending time with our son Davis.

As working parents, Dan and I both feel a pull to spend as much time with our son as possible when we are not working. And making this quality time is paramount. We try to keep work far from our minds and blackberries/iPhones out of the picture so that we can focus on Davis and not be distracted in anyway.

I think of this as stirring the oatmeal, family-style. Passive parenting or having a marriage where you don’t put in effort to keep working on your relationship with your spouse is easy to slip into with how busy lives have become.

But I really try to keep stirring.

I’m not saying it is easy. It’s not. And some days are better than others.

I will admit that it’s definitely a balancing act most days between being a wife, mother and building my fundraising consulting business. I’m constantly looking for ways to keep stirring the oatmeal with my husband and our son. For me, it’s not about doing big things. I have found that small gestures throughout the week make the biggest difference. A lot of times, this is where food comes in.

Which brings me to a rainy early Thursday morning at my house a few weeks ago. Dan had a very busy week at work and was likely to miss lunch that day because of a hectic schedule. Davis was battling a cold. Because of needing to get to work and wanting to play with Davis versus cooking, it is rare that on a weekday morning I have a chance to cook breakfast from scratch for my family. Nothing out of a package feels as special as, say, pancakes or French toast. Knowing my family needed a pick-me-up, I headed straight to the kitchen and began making the most divine oatmeal pancakes.

I do realize that oatmeal pancakes seem a bit unconventional. I pride myself on being a pancake connoisseur and these are unreal. The added benefit is pancakes that are more filling because of the oats and better for you without sacrificing flavor.

While Dan got ready for work, Davis and I hit the kitchen and put the pancakes together. The pancakes took about 5-10 minutes to put together the batter. I substituted fat free plain yogurt for buttermilk and the result was fluffy, moist pancake perfection.

As the three of us ate our pancakes together, I had a moment where I felt more fulfilled than usual and realized in their own way, Dan and Davis both appreciated the special mid-week breakfast. I never knew cooking pancakes from scratch in the middle of the week could make me feel so good. I can’t quite put my finger on it but for whatever reason, I felt like life was in balance at that moment. I had done something in the middle of the week I normally don’t have time to do as a working parent.


Davis enjoying his pancakes.

It made my heart feel full. I had stirred the proverbial oatmeal with my family with a small gesture and in doing so, surprised myself with just how good a rainy Thursday morning can be by 7 am.
Oatmeal Pancakes
(Yields 3 servings of two pancakes each)
**I do realize the irony that this recipe uses quick-cooking oats.
Ingredients
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg

Details
Combine first seven ingredients in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk.

Combine yogurt, melted butter and egg in a smal bowl.  Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

This is what the batter will look like:

Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray.  Spoon about 2 tablespoons per pancake onto griddle.

Turn pancakes over when tops are covered with bubbles; cook until bottoms are lightly browned.

Garnish with fresh berries and/or maple syrup.

Adapted from Cooking Light